Welcome to November’s Wandering Camera linky party. Thank you again for visiting, for your lovely comments and for sharing your photos. I love seeing your photos and reading about them.

Just like the changing Autumn wind, October came to us with a myriad changes of weather. There were hot days with extremely low humidity. Then we had gusty storms which brought on colder winds and consecutive rainy days. Beautiful skies, leaves and flowers, warm colours and walks filled my days. The month ended with a weekend visit to beautiful Yosemite. I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun I had with the camera. This month’s photos are a bit biased toward the outdoors.

I need your help with identifying a few flowers and seed pods. I put an asterisk beside the number. If you know what they are and let me know, I will be really grateful.

As you can tell, I loved being out and about in October. I was playing around with composing photos with wide-angle shots as well as with zoomed-in subjects. On that note, I thought I’d talk a little about composition today.

Composition

Until today I mostly showed you different camera settings and how they affect your photos. While that is shared knowledge, composition is something extremely personal. Everyone sees and feels differently, and composition captures that experience. Here are a few basic tips that might make it a little easier for you at the beginning.

Close-up vs. wide-angle

This is the first thing you want to define when you are taking a photo. Sometimes, wide-angle shots end up adding a lot of noise without focus. If you find yourself in that situation, change to a few selective close-up detail shots. If the focused subject gets lost in the background noise, zoom in more.

Offset

Sometimes, offsetting the subject to one side of the picture instead of keeping it in the centre gives a sense of movement and provides interest.

Symmetry

For symmetrical subjects such as doors and windows however, keeping the focal point at the centre creates a balanced composition.

Symmetry In Landscape

I am going to keep this one real simple. Define if you want the photo to be cut in 1/2-s or 1/3-s.

For example – If you are taking a photo of the sea and the sky, you will want the horizon to go through the middle. So, you will be cutting the composition into 1/2-s.

If you add a set of mountains in between the sea and the sky, you want the picture to be cut into 1/3-s, with the sky taking 1/3, the mountains 1/3 and the sea 1/3.

These are guidelines. Change them around depending on what you want to emphasize. In photo No. 9 above, I decided to cut the photo into 1/2-s because the mid-day sky was very dull and I decided to focus more on the mountains and the water.

Anchor

For landscape photography, have a focal or anchor point in the foreground. It can be a rock, a tree, a house, anything. Since photography is two-dimensional, this also provides depth.

Contrast

Try to avoid extreme dark and light areas in the same photo unless you are doing that by design.

Remember that these are just suggestions, they are not cut in stone. All of these tips are the result of my experimentation. Depending on the situation I quite often may not even follow them myself. I also often hear “what can you possibly see in there??” I have always strongly urged you to experiment with your own photography. See for yourself!

Badge to share on your post and website

You can add any number of links to your posts from the previous month. The posts should have photos in them, with a story or anecdote. Your project photos (quilting, sewing, painting, knitting, etc.) are most welcome. You can also write a new post to link up. Please do not link up posts that are older than the previous month, they will be removed.

Please make sure to include the badge or a text link back to this site on each post that you link up. You can also add the badge to your blog. I am happy either way as long as you link back :-)

Spread a little encouragement amongst each other.

Wandering Camera is a monthly event that will run on the first Thursday of every month. If you follow me via email, bloglovin or facebook, you will get a reminder.

Soma, I always gaze at your photos for a long time. They are so very beautiful!
I’m no help on the plant / seed pod identification.
It just so happens that I played a little bit with some of the things you taught in this month’s lesson. I’ve been trying to train myself out of the western culture habit of centering and making everything symmetrical. So I actually did take a few offset photos.

Your October has given you some glorious photos, Soma. More beautiful skies and oh my, Yosemite is incredible. Love the raindrops on the leaf…..very clever! I always am interested in reading your tips and information on how to improve my photography. Thank you!

I always feel as though I am looking through a photography book when I look at your photos. Autumn is such a showy season of the year and you have captured it with such beautiful photos. You did have fun with the camera this month.